Current Starwood Privilege Benefits

Status
Not open for further replies.

ilyth

Junior Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2010
Posts
18
Hi all,

I am currently considering to join the Starwood Privilege or not.
Can anyone advise the deals for the current membership for Starwood Privilege? The package seems to be only with dinning benefits only... coz the room rate discount is not competitive at all and make the membership fee hard to be "valuable" even with the SP45 discount.

Please all share your ideas with me.

Cheers,
 
Hi, I am a current satisfied member of Starwood Privilege.
When I last checked membership was $289 a year.
You are right in that the 50% off when 2 people are dining is a main benefit.
Plus of course you also get Starwood Preferred Guest points when dining, even if not staying at the hotel. In a recent example the food cost was $140, which fell to $70.
So if you do this 4 times in a year you pay for your membership.

Also you get 15% off liquor and beverages purchased.

Regarding accommodation you can still get 10% off most Starwood rates.
Although some rates do not get it in general I am happy with this benefit.

You also get various vouchers which for me included:

1 Complimentary Breakfast Buffet for 2 people.
1 Complimentary Bottle of Selected Wine.
4 Late Check Out or Upgrade.
2 50% off Dining Certificate for up to 8 people.
5 Guest Membership Certificates.

Everyone has different patterns of staying and dining but it works for me.
 
Cold Call from Starwood Privilege VIP salesman

Just received a call as per the thread title.

Basic Benefits for your $299 PA:
10% of any publicly available rate
15% beverage purchases
One dines free at a table at Participating Hotel (2 PAX=50%, 3 PAX = 33% etc.)
Any Seven night stay is charged at 50% rate¹ for 5 nights and other 2 nights are free, so pay for 2½ nights, stay seven.
2 Group Dining vouchers (up to 8, 50% off F&B)
2 Comp night vouchers
2 Upgrade vouchers

When I initially tried to put the sales person off I was offered an additional 2 comp nights, 2 upgrade vouchers and 2 Group Dining vouchers.

All in all it's comparative with other things that are available; I just wish there were more SPG properties in OZ and that SPG status benefits were guaranteed.

¹ Missed whether that 50% was based upon "Rack Rate".
 
Re: Cold Call from Starwood Privilege VIP salesman

Just received a call as per the thread title.

Basic Benefits for your $299 PA:
10% of any publicly available rate
...

I got a call a little while ago to renew, I said to them that the 10% off is not what they claimed. Basically, the discount has to be applied at booking time, you can't claim it at check-in (which is ironic, as the coupons can be used by others and they can only be used at check-in).

If you book via their site, it's clear that the discount is not applicable 'any publicly available' rates. I told them that, and they said I should ring up the hotel to apply the discount because the systems aren't always aligned (very lame excuse).

It just happened that at the time of the call, I'd a stay coming up, so I asked the salesperson to call me back in a few days. I did exactly the same as they told me and the hotel refused to apply the 10%, stating the discount is not available to already discounted rate. To me, that just means the discount is only available to 'best available rate' (rack rate?).

The salesperson called me back as they promised, and I told them the story. They asked which property it was, I told them and they said they'd call me back. I haven't heard from them since - that was nearly a month ago.
 
10% off any publicly available rate

I'm angry if Privilege is still saying that, it is plain wrong.

If you can recoup more than the membership fee through the dining benefits then go ahead, but if you book prepaid rates you will almost always get a better rate than Privilege in my experience.

My advice is to ask them to put "10% off any publicly available rate" in writing. Even if they do, don't expect them to honour it, but at least you should have a case through Fair Trading to get a membership refund.

I had it in writing. It was crystal clear in the membership T&Cs I received and I did get that for a few months. Then they said they were changing it to "most" rates. I think "selected rates" would be more honest. So regardless of what you think you are buying, Privilege thinks it can change the benefits at any time and not honour them for the full term of your membership.

I'm usually easy going and have been in business so I can forgive errors but this wasn't an error, they admitted that. They really pushed this benefit upfront then later decided to change it. This is the worst company I have ever dealt with.

Sorry if this has turned into a rant but you've been warned.

PS. Starwood Privilege is run by a third party. I have no problem with Starwood hotels or Starwood Preferred Guest.
 
Last edited:
The guy stated discounts were applicable to any rate available publicly including wotif and need-it-now.

He called back the next day and I basically told him that Starwood was not for me as it did not suit my needs. He then said he can throw in a complimentary membership for SPG as well & then I can earn points for free stays. WTF! :shock:

... he lost me completely then.:-|
 
I am a current member of Starwood Privilege, and satisfied with the benefits, although would always like more.

Primarily the benefit I obtain is the Dining Benefit, ie Pay for One if Two Eat (Food Cost).
The 10% off for Accommodation is off selected rates. Often it has worked for me, but not always.
Membership of Starwood Preferred Guest is free anyway!

What concerns me with the package advised to serfty, is that I think that one of those benefits may not be correct. I renewed my package in December 2010, and it certainly did not include the following:

2 Comp Nights.
 
The Frequent Flyer Concierge team takes the hard work out of finding reward seat availability. Using their expert knowledge and specialised tools, they'll help you book a great trip that maximises the value for your points.

AFF Supporters can remove this and all advertisements

...
Membership of Starwood Preferred Guest is free anyway!
...
That's why I pleasantly finished the call shortly after that.
rolleyes.gif

...

2 Comp Nights.
On a closer look, even though the salesman did describe them as "complimentary" certificate it seems from my scribbled notes to have been more like 50% off rack rate.

FWIW, with the relative dearth of SPG and HHonors properties in SWP, HHonors (and the Premium Club) works better for me due to Guaranteed Lounge access and Complimentary Breakfast.
 
I enquired about *wood Privilege prior to a vacation in Thailand because the offers described on FT were very good. When I enquired, the benefits appeared to be only within your country of residence.

I quickly concluded that the Australian offers are of little use to a SPG Platinum, or even Gold member. 50% off rack rate can be gained for 1,000 *points, and room upgrades are a benefit of both tiers. Who uses hotel F&B when in Australia when on leisure? $40 for mediocre pasta at the SOTP, no thanks!

What really made me angry was the hardcore sales technique. I was called no less than 15 times in the space of 3 months in 2010, despite telling the salesperson that I wasn't interested. Instead, they kept calling to see if I changes my mind. Of those 15 calls, I would have answered about 5, after which I lost it.
 
Last edited:
As someone that has gotten SPG Gold and was going out of my way to use it whenever I could, I'm finding the lack of options within Australia challenging as well. For my travel patterns, Hilton seems to be better, providing better options in Australia when I travel for business, and more reasonably priced options and more attainable/useful perks in the HHonors program, particularly now that there's no Perth option for SPG. Going to have to start a Gold or Diamond Fast Track, I think.
 
I'm a happy starwood privilege member.

Most of what posters above have said is correct, the 10% off is off "best available rate" and yes you can usually do better with prepaid rates. Where we have got our monies worth over and over is with the F&B discounts so you have to figure out if this is going to work for you. Generall 2 of us are travelling and most of our travel is in the Asia-Pac region. We can get half price breakfasts, eat in the better restaurants in the hotel etc by using the card. Its not true that benefits are only in Australia, in fact there are many more participating hotels in other Asian countries than in Australia. So far we have used our card in Fiji (saved over $1000 just in one week there), Australia, China and South Korea from memory. We also used 2 x 50% off cards for groups of 8 for our office Christmas party at the Westin Melbourne, that was a huge saving and a good night was had by all.

cheers
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Enhance your AFF viewing experience!!

From just $6 we'll remove all advertisements so that you can enjoy a cleaner and uninterupted viewing experience.

And you'll be supporting us so that we can continue to provide this valuable resource :)


Sample AFF with no advertisements? More..

Currently Active Users

Back
Top